Transit News Digest 3.11.09

In our last Transit News Digest, we failed to note that former Muni chief Emilio Cruz is back at it, leading a joint-venture of that drastically underfunded Central Subway Project thingy, as reported by SF Appeal yesterday. Thanks for noticing, Rescue Muni.

SF Appeal has another great piece of original reporting out today uncovering the SFMTA’s difficulties in having enough drivers on-board (ha!) to drive the allotted number of buses each day. Nice work on the article, Matt. Stay tuned, Muni Diaries readers, for your chance to ask Muni anything that’s on your mind (well, almost anything).

SF Streets Blog has an excellent piece up today asking the non-rhetorical question: What can the city do make the MTA more accountable? A great read, and be sure to share your ideas with them.

The Examiner digs deeper into just how much of a waste the ill-fated Culture Bus was, and SF Citizen isn’t far behind, comparing the yellow buses to NASA’s space shuttle program. Ouch!

And in happier news (at least for transit nerds like us), KPIX reports that about 8 percent of California’s expected $50 billion in stimulus money will go toward transportation projects. No clear word on how much of that will be for public transit, and how much we can expect here in the Bay Area. And the percentage could always be higher. But we’re happy to see the green river flowing again …

As always, if you’ve got tips, suggestions, or diaries of your own, send them our way.

One comment

  • Thanks for the update and links on the culture bus. I guess last September I thought it was a nice idea, imagining that someday I might be at the de Young and have a sudden, inescapable craving for a chocolate cream puff from Beard Papa at Yerba Buena, and this might be the quickest way to get from Point A to Point B. But it never materialized, and I had no idea the loss was so considerable. Maybe they should have launched this service in June?

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